Talks on Art - Thomas Thwaites and the Toaster Project

Date

Location

Description

Designer Thomas Thwaites is attempting to make an electric toaster from scratch; digging up the raw materials at various disused mines around Britain, processing and refining them in his back garden in south London, and forming them into components for his toaster.

He talked about this journey, economies of scale, smelting iron in your microwave, alarming specialisation, the limitations of plastic made from potatoes, scale, and the history and possible futures of human society embodied in the electric toaster.